Barbarian phalanx???

[Turk]

Hi,
To see in the german tribe a phalanx units seems strange to me?

how do you think?

PS:Eb has barbarian phalanx too(mori gaesum)

[Sidus Preclarum]

Well, cesar describes the Helveti (iirc) as forming a phalanx in de bello gallico, but what he exactly meant by that is open to interpretations. Most probably, a tight shielded order

[Ludens]

You are right, except that the Helveti were Celts and not Germans. Also, while neither the Germans nor the Helveti employed a Macedonian-style phalanx, both did seem to have used massed formations of long spears.

[Sidus Preclarum]

You are right, except that the Helveti were Celts and not Germans.

I know that. I brought the Helvetii up because Turk mentionned them (EB's Mori Gaesum)

[Turk]

but from where have they learned to form it?

[joerd9]

Trial and error probably.

[NaptownKnight]

I would assume they had contact with at least someone from ancient greece, either hundreds of years before or recently. Maybe that person taught them it. I think it's a little strecth though for them to have so many units capable of forming perfect Macedonian Phalanxes, I mean even Alexander's army lines up the same as them.

[Ludens]

I would assume they had contact with at least someone from ancient greece, either hundreds of years before or recently. Maybe that person taught them it. I think it's a little strecth though for them to have so many units capable of forming perfect Macedonian Phalanxes, I mean even Alexander's army lines up the same as them.

Possibly they learned it from the Macedonians themselves. After all, the pike phalanx was the dominant infantry type of the eastern Mediterranean ever since Alexander. Also, around 280 B.C., just before the start of the game, a large group of Celts migrated through Macedonia and inflicted a severe defeat on them. These Celts would mainly settle around Ankyra and become the Galatians, but it is not inconceivable that some of the would have turned back.

However, it's also possible that they invented it independently from the Greeks. The Germans employed both shieldwall and the long spear (though AFAIK not as long as shown in game), and that is how the Greeks arrived at the idea themselves.

[Commander_Vimes]

they don't seem to hold the line aswell as the macedoneons or greeks

[Kratos]

My guess is that this so called phalanx formation was developed without influence from Greece or Macedonia. It seems rather unlikely that the first thing a greek missionary taught a foreign people was to form a phalanx

[Dulce_et_Decorum_Est]

My guess is that this so called phalanx formation was developed without influence from Greece or Macedonia. It seems rather unlikely that the first thing a greek missionary taught a foreign people was to form a phalanx

"And lo, Zeus said unto the warriors of the Macedonians: form thy soldiers into tight ranks with thy spearpoints facing towards the enemy that thy spearpoints exceed the enemy in profusion!"

I agree. The German phalanx is just supposed to be a generic spear wall formation, the sort that was developed multiple times in the ancient world. The only availible animation was for the Macedonian phalanx, so we got Germans who inexplicably knew the Macedonian phalanx.

[Wrath]

My guess is they just put it there to give more diversity between the various barbarian tribes.